


The Champion's Death

by aeriamamaduck



Series: Cyrodiil's Child [33]
Category: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Genre: Assassination, Character Death, Loss of Innocence, Loss of Parent(s), Murder, Poisoning, Revenge, emetophobia warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-12 21:56:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7950661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeriamamaduck/pseuds/aeriamamaduck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Minerva Saturnius faces her last foe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Champion's Death

**4E27**

“Tolisi!” Minerva was genuinely surprised to see the smiling Dunmeri woman standing at her doorstep. She hardly ever left the White Stallion Lodge in the three months since she’d joined her and Mazoga, but Minerva had made it a point to extend an invitation to the newest member of their little group.

Tolisi smiled and moved in to embrace her warmly. “I hope this isn’t a bad time, my friend. I decided to take you up on your invitation. Mazoga had business in the West Weald and couldn’t join us.”

“It’s not a bad time at all. Come in. Sit.”

Minerva led her inside, closing the door and moving towards the two vacant chairs set by a small table. She began to clear away the writing board she and her granddaughter had been using. “Please excuse the mess. My granddaughter and I were working on her letters.”

Tolisi chuckled lightly at the childish scrawls on the board. “And where is the little treasure?”

“She’s playing with her dolls upstairs. She’s earned it. My son and his wife are in the market, but they should be back in a little while.” In truth, Gaius was escaping to the market, clearing his mind of all the worries that plagued him. Mediating between the College and the Synod took too much out of him, and he not even thirty. Soon he would return to all of it but for now he could enjoy himself with Inga and Minny.

As if summoned, Minerva heard the thunderous steps down the stairs, signaling her granddaughter’s arrival. The little girl called out when she appeared, “Grandma, can you co–”

She suddenly fell uncharacteristically silent and froze at the bottom of the stairs, her gaze falling on the womer sitting at the small table.

All color had left her granddaughter’s face, and Minerva frowned with concern. “Minny?”

She got to her feet just as the girl spun on her heel and raced back up the stairs as if wolves were at her back. Tolisi pressed her fingers to her mouth in surprise. “Oh, dear. I haven’t frightened her, have I?”

“No! No, I think she’s just shy.” That explanation didn’t manage to fully convince Minerva. Her granddaughter smiled readily at most people, and asked thousands of questions upon meeting someone new. “I’ll be right back. I just want to check on her.”

She made her way up the stairs to Minny’s bedroom, surprised to find the door shut. She opened it and found the girl sitting on her bed, knees drawn up to her chest as she shook.

Minerva quickly made her way to her, stroking the girl’s honey-colored hair comfortingly. “Minny? Darling, it’s not like you to just run from guests like that. What‘s wrong?”

In a very quiet voice, the girl asked, “Who is she, Grandma?”

Minerva smiled at her before pressing kisses to her face. “She’s mine and Mazoga’s friend, Tolisi! You remember when I told you about us exploring Fort Sutch? Where all those nasty imps lived?”

Minny nodded slowly, apprehension in her eyes. Like her father, her gaze faithfully followed Minerva, ever trusting. Giving her one more squeeze, Minerva asked, “Will you come meet her?”

“In a minute,” she replied softly. At least her trembling had ceased. Minerva gave her hair one final stroke and got up to leave the room, walking back downstairs to find Tolisi pouring tea into her own cup.

“I took the liberty of preparing our cups,” she explained. “Such a lovely porcelain set. Wherever did you get it?”

Minerva sat back down and picked up her cup. “Inga’s father. A wedding present. Please, relax. You’re my guest.”

She took a quiet sip, closing her eyes to enjoy the soothing heat making its way down her throat.

Tolisi softly commented as she glanced up the stairs, “Such a pretty girl. You must be very proud of her.”

Minerva smiled gratefully. Hopefully Minny was going to be fine. “I am. She is an absolute joy, just like her father.”

“And what a legacy she must come to live up to. Granddaughter to the Champion of Cyrodiil.” The elf grinned broadly.

Shaking her head, Minerva answered, “I would hope she follows her own path, just as Gaius has.”

“What else can one expect from a son of yours?”

Familiar pride flared up within Minerva as she took another sip. “Gods, is this what perfection is?”

“Perfection?” Tolisi asked, one brow arched up.

“My family around me. Getting to see them thrive. The three of us doing some good out there in Cyrodiil.”

“Yes, you do so much good. You always have. Or so you thought.”

Minerva turned to her, confused. “…What?”

Tolisi’s grin slowly disappeared and she set her cup down. Her eyes turned to ice as they locked on Minerva. “You served a dying Empire. You still do, even as it’s in its death throes. Somewhere along the line you may have realized how futile it all was, even as you slaughtered Lord Dagon’s faithful.”

An uncomfortable heat prickled at the back of Minerva’s neck as she frowned at the womer, acutely bothered by her words. “Tolisi, what on earth are you talking about? The Empire is not…dying.”

She replied with a humorless chuckle. “You’re wrong, my friend. The Empire is not what it once was. It never will be. Perhaps it died with the pretender.” She got to her feet and walked around the table, all the while looking down at Minerva, who had stiffened when she mentioned Martin. “You failed, Minerva Saturnius. Mankar Camoran may have lost…but you did not save the Septim bastard.”

Minerva closed her eyes and let out a sigh, fingers tightening around her cup as she realized just what she’d let into her home. The way her voice curled around Mankar Camoran’s accursed name brought back all of the remembered horror and fury of Dagon Shrine and Paradise, and Minerva knew how foolish she’d been to assume they had accepted defeat. She opened her eyes, resigned to recognizing the agent standing before her. “How remarkable that a member of the Mythic Dawn managed to evade detection all these years. Your patience is admirable. Many of your surviving brethren compromised themselves in the aftermath and were swiftly dealt with.”

Tolisi’s fist curled on the table and she snarled, “Yes, I’ve seen their heads decorating the spikes over city gates. My brothers and sisters, killed in the name of weak, _pathetic_ gods. Every single day, waking up, getting through the hours, knowing you and your ilk drew breath. It made me _sick_.”

Sick, when she had fought beside Minerva and Mazoga and laughed along with them, sharing the same exhilaration. _What a consummate actress_. Thinking about it all was making her stomach hurt. “And why didn’t you show yourself earlier? Hmm? Were you too afraid to admit you were a cultist?”

“All of these years we’ve tried to rebuild our ranks. Take our revenge. But as you said, many of my brethren were foolhardy in their desire, and fell.” She brought her face closer to Minerva’s, her red hair cascading down her shoulders. “But I’ve waited for the right moment. I’ve waited all of these long years for you to be in your greatest glory so I could tear you down myself, and the Dawn would finally have its revenge.”

Minerva laughed bitterly, a dare in her eyes as she glared at the Dunmer. “And now you think you’re going to kill me. Is that it, Tolisi, my friend?”

Tolisi shook her head, the smile on her face close to a sympathetic one, were it not for the loathing in her eyes. One swing of her fist and Minerva would have had her down on the floor and throttled her, but the sudden, unbearable heat that burst in her middle had her gasping and clutching her stomach. She covered her mouth just as something burbled out, and she found dark blood pooling on her palm. The pain flared horribly and Minerva stared at Tolisi in shock. The Dunmer, still smiling, whispered, “I already killed you. You were dead from the first sip.”

Minerva’s heartbeat was oddly thunderous in her ears as her gaze slowly traveled to the half-empty cup in her hand. Her breaths came in pained shudders when she realized just what she’d drunk, and her wide-eyed gaze met Tolisi’s triumphant one. _Oh, gods…_

“Grandma?”

Tolisi’s gaze immediately flitted up to the bottom of the stairs, her red eyes flaring with attention. Minerva clutched the teacup in her hand and rapidly swung it at Tolisi’s face. It shattered on her cheek, the hot liquid scalding her skin as she screamed. Minerva leapt out of her seat but she staggered and her vision blurred. She fell to her hands and knees to retch bloodily. Minny began to cry and back into the wall, staring at Tolisi in terror as Minerva tried to crawl towards her, but the twisting, hot clawing in her stomach and throat made her fall on to her side, regurgitating bile and blood as her entire body seized and she screamed gutturally.

_No! No..!_

She heard faint shouts as she lay there, fighting for breath, and white light flashed in the periphery of her blurred vision. She watched Tolisi land heavily against the wall, electricity crackling over her body as she tried to get back up. An ice spike tore through her chest and she lay still.

Minerva tried to speak but only a ragged moan escaped her. Fire blazed across her body as she felt herself being moved and she was looking up at her son’s horror-stricken face.

His lips moved but his voice sounded stifled. He frantically shook his head and she heard his muffled shout over his shoulder, _“GET HELP!”_

A moment later came Inga’s voice, faded and distant, “ _SOMEONE FIND A HEALER, PLEASE!”_

She didn’t hear Minny. Why didn’t she hear her granddaughter? _Tell me she’s safe. Gods, please let her be alive._

Gaius was saying something, looking down at her with agony in his face, beloved to her from the moment she first held him. His tears fell on her face, and she shook her head trying to manage soft shushing noises. Mouth caked with blood, she could only shake her head and murmur, “No…no…”

The pain began to fade, but Minerva could not move a single limb or even breathe well. Her son’s hand touched her face and she heard his faint and shaking voice say, “Mum. Mum, look at me. It’s alright, help’s on the way. Just hold on. Promise me you’ll hold on, Mum.  _Please.”_

She fought to hold his gaze as the world grew darker and fell silent, and she watched Gaius’s heart shatter before her eyes.

_I’m sorry._

Darker and darker until it was over, and Minerva lay dead in her son’s arms as he screamed in horror and fury.

**Author's Note:**

> Powdered jarrin root.


End file.
